Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake started life as a greeting card character in the early 1980s, but soon spawned a line of popular dolls and other merchandise, accompanied by six TV specials released annualy from 1980 to 1985. In these specials she and her friends lived in Strawberryland, raising berries and taking care of the occasional villainy concocted by The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak.

In 2003, she came back again, this time with a series of Direct to Video specials, all of which were subsequently split up into a TV series. It also spawned two movies, regular soundtrack releases, and games. In this incarnation, she still lived in Strawberryland, but her friends lived in their own lands, and for a while there were no villains, just life lessons to be learned.

The franchise got another reboot in 2009, with Strawberry living in Berry Bitty City, and no villains in sight (at least not at this time...). This franchise has so far spawned a 2010 TV series (which is not available in some parts of Asia due to the cable providers not wanting to carry Boomerang), three movies, and a iPhone game that is only available in the US.

Now has a CharacterSheet. It would be berry, berry appreciated if you contribute to it.

Anti-Hero - Raspberry Tart/Torte in the '80s and 2003 series, though more pronounced in the latter, and Peppermint Fizz in the 2003 series.

Anti-Villain - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak in the first '80s television special, Raisin Cane in the 1986 comic book, and every antagonist in the 2003 series. In regards to the latter, Sour Grapes is a prime example of this trope, though this is subverted for her on some rare occasions.

Art Evolution - And how! The characters have undergone four major design revisions since the franchise was launched in the early 80s. Seven if you count the little-seen hybrids and evolutions that popped up between the revisions.

Beauty Equals Goodness - Subverted in the '80s series and in the early seasons of the 2003 series, but started appearing as of episodes created after the 2007 redesign, and played straight in the 2009 series.

Character Depth - All over the place depending on the individual characters and the different versions, but not without an impressive array of deep characters (especially when one considers its genre).

Curtains Match the Window - Often. There are plenty of exceptions, such as (most of) the villains and (most) side characters. Averted by many of the 2003 protagonists. Strawberry herself is a subversion: Strawberry wears red and pink clothes while her eyes are brown in the '80s and 2003, and green in 2009. Still, there are many cases of Curtains Match the Window in all versions.

Genki Girl - Though she is grown, Sour Grapes is certainly (in)famous for being this.

Getting "Booze" Past the Radar - The second 1980s special is a literal example of this trope, as it somehow manages to get away with an alcohol reference in its theme song ("What a day/Hip Hooray/She's got a special letter and she's on her way/Bouncy as a bubble of champagne..."). The 2003 version is more straight example, in which there is a character named "Watermelon Kiss". A "watermelon kiss" is also an alcoholic drink.

Mint Tulip from the '80s. Her name was partially a pun on mint julep, another alcoholic drink.

Green Eyed Red Head - While Strawberry had black eyes in her previous versions, the 2009 and later versions show her having green eyes.

1980s specials: The Pieman. He had a Heel Face Turn at the end of The World of Strawberry Shortcake, but by the following year's Big Apple City, he reverted to his old ways due to his "evil conscience", as he explains to the frustrated Strawberry.

2003/2007 series: Grapes, Grapes, Grapes. Until the last episodes of the series, see below

Keep Circulating the Tapes - Only the first two specials from the 80's have been released on DVD, with no plans to release the rest.

Subverted with Season 4 of the 2003/2007 series. Season 4 was not brought in by Kewlopolis and the DVD release of the 2003/2007 series became erratic shortly after the rights transferred from Playmates and Di C to Hasbro and Moonscoop, which had many fans worrying that the releases will grind to a halt before all episodes could be pushed out on DVD. However, one thing that did not happen was the 2003/2007 releases grinding to a halt, and in March 2012, almost 5 years later, the last unreleased pair of episodes went out on DVD. And the Fandom Rejoiced.

2003/2007: Tons of them - Four titles (including one GBA Video cartridge and one Europe-exclusive title) for the Game Boy Advance, two titles for the Nintendo DS, and a title for the PlayStation 2, which was ported over to the PC and then not released outside Europe. And then there's the Plug-and-play dance mat. Also, three PC titles (including said Europe-only port of the PlayStation 2 Sweet Dreams Game).

Edutainment Games: Amazing Cookie Party and Berry Best Friends (two of the aforementioned PC titles) are this.

2009: The game for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, which is currently only available in North America.

Lilliputians - The 1980s and 2009 Strawberry and friends are tiny people living in a berry patch.

Implied in the former, played straight in the latter.

Literal-Minded - The Peculiar Purple Pieman, and with the exception of the three examples listed below, it's usually subtle. It's also not consistent, so while it is used for humor and/or drama of plot when it does occur, his literal mindedness was realistically written.

Is a chocolate mousse a moose? Do berries actually grow right before ones eyes in Strawberryland? Is literally stealing dreams a logical course of action?

Sour Grapes is a bit literally minded herself, but so much less so than her male counterpart. Truth in Television, as women are generally more skilled at understanding metaphors.

Appears to be averted in the "Berry Bitty Adventures" incarnation (at least for the moment); there are only six characters, including Strawberry, and they are all characters that have existed since the 1980s version.

No Antagonist: Much of the 2003 episodes (many viewers just don't see Peppermint Fizz as an antagonist) except The Festival of Fillies, up until the reintroduction of the Pie-Man and Sour Grapes. Played straight again with the 2009 CGI series.

The 2003 series: A somewhat convoluted version - Ice Cream Island Riding Camp for the Game Boy Advance and the PC port of The Sweet Dreams Game for the PlayStation 2 got an Europe-only release. Also, PlayStation 2 version of the Sweet Dreams Game never got an NTSC/J release in Asia despite the show's popularity in the region.

The 2009 series: The iPhone app is exclusive to only the US. Also, the 2009 series is this to Malaysia, since the show, like Care Bears: Adventures in Care-A-Lot, ended up on Boomerang, which is not available in Malaysia. And it doesn't help that the video clips and full episodes on The Hub's website are region locked and cannot be accessed from outside the US.

The One Guy - Huckleberry Pie, most of the time. (The first two 1980s specials had another male character in Plum Puddin', but he didn't have a corresponding doll. The character was reintroduced as a female in 1984, and finally got represented as a toy this way.)

Screwed by the Network - As mentioned above, CBS/Kewlopolis dropped the show after Season 3 and did not air season 4 following the master license switches and courtroom battles between Moonscoop, Cookie Jar and Di C.

Smart People Speak the Queen's English - Both T.N. Honey from the first series and Mr. Longface Caterpillar from the 2009 series fit this trope. The twins Lem and Ada seem to avert it, though, as they are no more intelligent or stupid than the other characters.

Honey Pie Pony from the 2003 series also has a British accent, and is also quite street smart. However, she's the only pony on the show who could talk, and she does have Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping moments too.

Spell My Name with an "S" - When Raspberry "Tart" was reintroduced in the 2003 incarnation, her name was changed to Raspberry "Torte" (also used in the 2009 version). There are various fan theories on the reason for this change, with the most likely being the unfortunate connotations the term "tart" has garnered.

AGC and Hasbro has released a 30th Anniversary doll set, with Raspberry's last name restored to Tart in that version. Given that it's targeted at adults who're nolstagic tho...

Spell My Name with a "The" - Subverted with The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. While he is a villain who speaks of himself using his full name (and following up with his song and dance), he couldn't care less that everyone else calls him by shorter versions of his name.

Spinoff Babies - The "Berry Baby" merchandise in the 1980s version, and the "Strawberry Shortcake Baby" line of the 2003 version.

Spraying The Scent On Strawberries- In Strawberry Shortcake Meets The Berrykins, The Berry Princess and her Berrykins are in charge of giving the berries of Strawberryland their scent.

In Spring For Strawberry Shortcake, Old Man Winter and the young girl Spring are responsible for bringing their respective seasons to Strawberryland.

"When The Berry Fairy Came to Stay" reveals that the Berry Fairies are responsible for giving the Strawberryland berries their size and color.

Spring Is Late: In a book from the 1980s, Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End, and the 2003 DVD Spring For Strawberry Shortcake.

Sugar Bowl - Only Rainbow Brite and the Care Bears are as known for this, at least in the U.S. (The U.K. theatrical release of The Care Bears Movie ran Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins as a pre-movie bonus; both were Nelvana productions.)

In the 2009 continuity: The Glimmerberry Ball movie - After her friends have a falling-out, Strawberry has to remind them that the Glimmerberry Gathering celebrates the community, friends helping friends.

Big Applesauce - Big Apple City, the eponymous place in the second special, Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City, is a transparent N.Y.C. analogue, complete with Greenwich Spinach Village. Moreover, on the album Strawberry Shortcake Live, she sings a cover version of "New York, New York". (As David Letterman joked years later in a "Dave's Record Collection" segment, "I think this is the real reason the city can't sleep.")

Cool and Unusual Punishment - Strawberry occasionally threatens the Peculiar Purple Pieman with "berry talk", which he can't stand (this was how she cleared her name in Pets on Parade). In fact, in Housewarming Surprise, Strawberry teaches his pet birds a song full of berry talk, knowing it would annoy him enough to make him return a bunch of recipes he stole from her.

Disney Death - The Berry Princess in Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins.

The Face of the Sun - Mr. Sun, who serves as the Narrator and interacts with Strawberry and the others. This is especially pronounced in the first special The World of Strawberry Shortcake, in which he provides a Deus Ex Machina "magic wish" when the kids need to rescue Apple Dumplin' from the Pieman's palace. It's worth noting that in the first three specials he was voiced by the scriptwriter, Romeo Muller (best known for his work with Rankin/Bass Productions).

A Friend in Need - The new friends Strawberry meets in Big Apple City bend over backwards during the bake-off to counteract everything the Pieman does to sabotage her: T.N. Honey fixes her oven (which he had turned into a refrigerator), everyone makes a lightning-fast run to the supermarket to get the proper ingredients for her shortcake (he had replaced milk with chalk water, etc.), and finally they call the hypnotized judge out for announcing the Pieman had won when he hadn't tasted either of the finished products (especially notable as Strawberry was perfectly willing to accept defeat).

Forgotten Birthday - Strawberry's birthday undergoes the surprise party treatment in the first special, though (unusually for this trope) it isn't the focus of the whole story, but an opportunity for the Pieman to hatch his plot.

Hair of Gold - The Berry Princess. (Note that while blonde characters appear in every version of Strawberry Shortcake, this is the only character who symbolizes this trope.)

Lethal Chef - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. This is a big plot point in Big Apple City, in which he and Strawberry are pitted against each other in a Bake-Off -- since he knows he can't honestly win, he comes up with plan after plan to keep things from getting to that point.

Smelly Skunk - The poor little skunk in Pets on Parade who's just arrived in Strawberryland doesn't have any friends, and it's implied that it's because of belief in this trope. But he isn't depicted as actually smelling bad, and at the end of the story he is adopted without hesitation by Strawberry's new friend Angel Cake.

Beleaguered Assistant - Cola Chameleon to Peppermint Fizz, Sour Grapes to the Purple Pieman and Raven to Licorice Whip. Custard tends to feel she is in this position for Strawberry Shortcake, and she is right about that at times.

Big Brother Instinct - Sour Grapes wishes that the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak followed this trope for her. He does, to a small extent, but clearly not as much as she would like for him to.

Cain and Abel - Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes, particularly highlighted in Dancin' in Disguise also known as Let's Dance.

Sour Grapes (specifically, Sour Grapes as the Wicked Witch of the West) gets a temporary switch to Cain in the Berry Brick Road episodes. Plum Puddin' (as Glinda the Good Witch) is her Abel.

Canon Foreigner: Ginger Snap, Peppermint Fizz, Rainbow Sherbet, Coco Calypso, and many others. Inverted in that unlike the later Cherry Jam character from the 2009 franchise, these characers also appeared in the toyline.

Demoted to Extra: Honey Pie Pony's final appearance was among the audience in It Takes Talent / Playing To Beat The Band, with no lines and no plot. She was then shoved onto the bus.

Dummied Out: The NTSC/UC version of The Sweet Dreams Game for the PlayStation 2 has the entire How A Garden Grows song from the movie in the game data, but it was never used in-game for reasons unknown.

Edited for Syndication - The first four specials are available in, aside from the 45-minute unedited version licensed to local home video producers, either 22-minute edits (in which the special loses half their songs and story content) or split into 2-parter episodes (in which a big glaring "To Be Continued" appears at the end of the first part) from the syndication office. Additionally, the DVD releases of subsequent episodes includes an additional prologue, bridge, epilogue and an additional music video that adds scenes to join two episodes together.

Heel Face Turn - Licorice Whip's assistant, Raven, in The Festival Of The Fillies. Licorice Whip himself goes through one in the European-release-only Game Boy Advance game Ice Cream Island Riding Camp which seals his transformation. Margalo... Ok, lets just say, that most villains in the series except Pie Man and Sour Grapes. Those two turned in the final episode of Season 4, Lights... Camera..., assuming Playhouse Disney Asia's line-up is canon, thus wrapping up the 2003/2007 series on a high note.

Ineffectual Loner - Peppermint Fizz. Then there's Banana Candy[1], although in actual fact she dislikes being one and only does it to keep Strawberry and company stuck in her town so she's not alone. Then Raspberry Torte nearly turned into one in the episode "Mind Your Manners".

Alpha Bitch: Peppermint Fizz in the first seasons, but she outgrows it. Angel Cake develops into this in the final season, and Lime Light is introduced as this. Lemon Meringue is an alpha bitch in one episode of the final season.

Minion with an F In Evil: In one episode, Strawberry Shortcake and her friends are putting on a play of Cinderella. Strawberry as Cinderella cries when the evil step-relatives say she can't go to the ball. Blueberry Muffin (the stepmother) and Ginger Snap and Orange Blossom (the stepsisters) feel bad and say she can go after all until Angel Cake (the fairy godmother) gets the story back on track.

Non Lethal Bottomless Pits: In the Sweet Dreams Game for the PlayStation 2, accidentally falling into a cliff or river will result in Strawberry saying "Oh, no!" while the screen goes through a wipe. The game then resumes with the player character standing just right next to the point the fall happened.

The Peculiar Purple Pieman: Ms. Grapes, what time do you get up in the morning?Sour Grapes: No earlier... than noon.

However, not long before said episode, Grapes was awake by early morning. Most likely, she jolted her brother awake with her shrieking. She was also awake early in the mornings (and late into nights and mornings) for what could have been as long as a month's time in a later episode, Down On The Farm. Justified by the explanation that she may sleep in on her days off, which are... probably frequent, in a bad way, all things considered. (You would be sourly depressed, too, if you were too genre savvy for your lot in life and consequently not allowed to use your talents. Makes sense that she would sleep away her days when possible.)

Also, Custard. She's just not a morning cat.

Not So Different - Raspberry Torte, the young jaded tomboy, and Sour Grapes, a bitter and feminine woman, touched on this in The Sweet Dreams Movie. Both are pessimists by nature, both are quite loyal to one person (Lemon Meringue and Purple Pieman, respectively), and both had the same abandoned dream. The younger established her role as Anti-Hero and the elder as Anti-Villain, roles they continued afterward.

Put on a Bus - Honey Pie Pony moved to Ice Cream Island in the 2007 redesign, right after being demoted to extra for a set of episodes.

Remember The New Girl - Peppermint Fizz makes her first appearance in "Peppermint's Pet Peeve" (from the "Best Pets Yet" DVD) without any formal introduction, and treats her as though she had always been one of Strawberry's friends.

Revenge Before Reason - Purple Pieman never had dreams. For this, and for his literal thinking causing him to actually try to literally snatch Strawberry Shortcake's dream away from her, he storms the Land of Dreams, deceives its inhabitants, basically boots out the Sandman, takes over the dream factory, holds the main Dream Builder hostage in a cage dangling over a black hole to blackmail the other dream factory workers, announces that dreams will no longer be shipped out, and then mentions that he never dreamed. After all of this, he continues ruining everything for the Land of Dreams, but he sure finished up a lot of revenge before explaining himself.

Rounded Character - Mainly Sour Grapes. She gets the most screen time for it, although other characters lean into this trope. Come 2007, Angel Cake is sort of a mind screwy subversion of this.

Running Gag - Custard getting continually pounced and surprisingly uninjured by Pupcake throughout the 2003 series and in the movie.

Slice of Life - The first three seasons and a few episodes of Season 4 that does not star the Pie-Man and Sour Grapes, which caught the attention of the Education Programming ConnoisseurPeriphery Demographic.

The Other Darrin - Huckleberry Pie and Custard's voice actors were replaced after the first season. The former because the voice actor had passed away in an accident, the latter for the more conventional reason of being no longer interested in playing the part.

Visionary Villain - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. This being targeted to a certain age group, he is still a Harmless Villain and suffers the consequences thereof.

What Happened To The Snake? - Dregs, who was always with Sour Grapes in the '80s, appears in only one episode here never to be seen again. While Honey Pie Pony moved to Ice Cream Island, the disappearance of Dregs is never explained. Fans theorize that he abandoned Grapes out of fear.

For that matter, all of the characters pets disappeared, with the exception of Custard and Pupcake after the 2007 redesign.

Contractual Genre Blindness: When Strawberry meets Cherry Jam for the first time, she apparently doesn't recognize her. The problem however, is that Cherry was wearing the same outfit as in the "music video" seen earlier in the episode. This makes it clear that it was only done in order to move the story along. One would think Strawberry would have recognized her immediately...

Road Sign Reversal - A non-racing version occurs in one episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures. While trying to deliver a package, Strawberry encounters a sign that tells her the way to go, only for a breeze to flip the markers, knocking off the one she needs.

Sweet and Sour Grapes - In "Berryfest Princess," Strawberry is rewarded for feeding the wanderberry that she was expected to bring back for the feast to a sick bird by finding a new one growing right outside her own house.

Wasn't That Fun? - In the movie "Sky's the Limit!", the girls survive a crazy ride down a hill on a leaf, whereupon Blueberry Muffin is the first to admit how much fun it was.

We Sell Everything - In "A Berry Grand Opening," the Berrykins ask for something "sparkling" and "orange," and Orange Blossom pulls out everything from a glittery vase to a tablecloth to Orange Brand laundry detergent (to get your clothes sparkly clean).